Cursed
by Jacquera
Summary: What if things had gone a little differently at the end of Clan of the Cave Bears?
1. Chapter 1

'I am the mog-ur. You are the leader. You have ordered Ayla cursed with death. But the spirits are not play things. They do not wield to the will of men. They cannot be ordered to do something. They can be cajoled, if there is a reason, they will help if help is needed. But they cannot be used for spite. You have ordered Ayla cursed with death. It is not done. Instead, I have cursed you with death,' Goov motioned, then turned his back of the leader of the clan.

Broud's mouth twisted into a frown as he slowly realised what the mog-ur had done.

'No,' he screamed. 'You were supposed to curse that disobedient woman. How dare you try to curse me?'

He started to run toward Goov, wanting to hurt him, but then noticed as one by one, the members of the clan, his clan turned away from him.

'You can't curse me,' he motioned. 'I am the leader.'

And then he saw Ayla. Standing near the cave that she'd just come out of. 'She,' he screamed. 'It is she that is cursed. Not me. Never me.'

But Ayla, in a world of her own, did not hear him. Too upset about the death of Creb, she didn't see him run toward her.

But Brun did.

'Be gone foul spirit,' he shouted, holding up a spear to bar his war to the woman. 'You are dead. You are not of the clan anymore. Be gone.'

Broud shook his head. 'No, I'm not cursed with death. She is.'

Other hunters have run up behind Brun now, all blocking his way to the woman.

'You will go spirit,' Brun indicated. 'We will have no dealings with the dead.'

'But I am the leader,' Broud motioned. 'I am…'

And then he saw Oga coming out of the cave, carrying his fur wrap. Followed by others, carrying other things of his. Spears, his cup, his furs to sleep in. One by one, they walk over to the fire that he'd had built outside.

'What are you doing? You're not going to burn my belongings.' He ran up to them. 'Oga.'

Oga turned away from him, fear showing in her eyes, and threw his wrap on the fire.

'Be gone spirit,' she said, ignoring him as she walked past.

'The leader is dead,' Brun motions. 'I will take up leadership again until Brac is old enough.'

'I am not dead.'

'I will train Brac in all he must know. And hopefully I will do a better job than I did with the son of my mate.' He sighed.

'No, I am going to train him,' Broud motioned. 'Not you. You are just an old man.'

He started to head toward where Brac and Grev are cowering behind the fire, looking at him with fear in their eyes. 'I am going to train you. Brac. You know that don't you? I am going to train you. The leader training the next leader.'

'Go away spirit,' Brac motioned.

'You will not treat me with disrespect.'

Someone small stepped next to Brac. 'Go away spirit,' Durc put his arms out to almost push Broud away.

'I am not going to let a deformed boy speak to me like that,' he gesticulates. 'You should never have lived. You should have died. Like your mother should have died. Neither of you belong in this clan. You never did,' Broud indicated, raising his arm to hit the boy.

'No,' a woman screamed.

Turning around, he saw Ayla marching straight to him. Standing tall before him. 'You are dead spirit, you will not hurt my son.'

Broud lurched at her.

She stepped out of his way, and he fell in a heap.

He scrambled to his feet. 'I will not go,' he said, spitting at her feet. 'I am not cursed with death. I cannot be cursed with death. I am the leader. I wanted you cursed with death. Not me. I will make Goov do what I say.'

'You will not spirit,' Goov motioned, coming into Broud's sight. Followed by Brun, all the hunters, and the rest of the clan. 'You are cursed with death. You are not of the clan anymore. You must go. Now.'

'No.'

'You will.' And then he nodded, and the hunters walked, with the spears pointing toward him. 'Be gone spirit,' they said, jabbing him with them.

And using the spears, they make him move.

'You can make me leave,' Broud motioned. 'But you cannot make me stay away.'

And then before one of the spears killed him for real, he ran.


	2. Chapter 2

Broud charged through the trees, his arms flailing madly around as he gesticulated to himself.

'How dare they treat me like that?' he motioned. 'How dare they? I am the leader. Not that old man. Not Brun. Me. How dare they? How dare they ignore me? How dare Goov curse me with death instead of Ayla? I'd just made him mog-ur, if it wasn't for me, he would be nothing. How dare he?'

Crashing through, his pushed passed the trees, ignoring the low laying branches that broke as he went passed them, stamping on plants and flowers. Making the small animals that made the trees their home scamper away in fright.

'I am going to make them pay for this,' he indicates, his arms still waving around, as he agitatedly considered what he could do.

'I kill that woman. I'll sneak back into the cave tonight and cut her throat. And then I'll go and pee on that old deformed holy man. And the grave of that stupid medicine woman Iza that started all this. In fact, I think I'll kill Ayla, dump her body and Creb's on Iza's grave and then pee over the three of them.'

He stopped and punched a nearby tree, skinning his knuckles and making them bleed.

'Look what they've done now,' he motioned, starring at his hand. 'They've made me so mad that I've hurt myself. I'll make them pay for that, and for everything else. And I'll make her pay the most. I'll take her son, and leave the deformed thing out for the wolves. Tie it to a tree so it can't get away.'

He grimaced, but it wasn't a grimace of pain, but one of spite and happiness. Of joy of having such a plan, and pure evil excitement.

'I'll make Ayla pay, I will, I'll make her pay for all the things she has done to me. Or the times she had taken what should be mine. Taken the attention away from me. I'll make her pay for turning the others, my clan, against me. And when she's gone, and when that boy is dead, then everything will be as it is meant to me. I will be respected and feared.'

He turned around, and started to head back toward the cave.

But then remembered the hunters' spears.

'I'd probably be best waiting a while,' he decided. 'Just let the dust settle. Let them bury that Creb, and see how much they need me. Yes, that would be the best idea. I'll wait and then go back.' He stopped. 'But what do I do now? I've got no weapons, or food, I only have what I am wearing, and my knife for cutting my food up with. I'm going to need them if I'm to survive and go back. I should have taken them with me when I left.

'Oh but they made me leave, and burnt my belongings. Oga, my Oga, my mate, she burned my sleeping furs. They've even turned my Oga aginst me.' He punched another tree, so hard this time that it shook and a squirrel ran down it, chattering noisily at him.

Broud tried to kick it.

And missed.

'Shut up,' he motioned to the squirrel. 'Shut up.'

He crouched down and put his head in his hands. 'What am I going to do?'

And then he remembered the small cave. The one that Ayla had shown them. The one she had used when she'd been cursed with death.

Her cave. And he would make it his.

As it should be.


	3. Chapter 3

It's dark and I still haven't found that stupid woman's cave. And now I've got no chance of finding it until the morning. If I try, I'll just wander around in circles, and get lost.

So I bury myself in the undergrowth and try to go to sleep.

Except the night sounds, the howls of the wolves, and the sound of scurrying animals keep me awake for ages.

It feels like I've only been asleep moments when I wake up to the sunlight shining on my face.

I stand up, twigs and earth cascading off me, and stretch my aching muscles.

And then I start to look for that cave again.

I walk through the trees, along the river, having a drink or two, and up a bit of a hill, but I still can't find it.

I try to think back to the day that I'd insisted to Brun that I should know where the cave was too. I remember us all following Ayla.

I remember it was behind some bushes. In a high secluded meadow.

I scratch my head, and walk along the hill stop a bit, and then up another one.

And then I see the hazelnut bushes, and remember that it was these that hid the cave.

I am in the right place.

Quickly I start to look at the bushes growing closest to the cliff. Push the branches aside, looking for the cave.

And then I find it.

And I go in.


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as Broud walked into the cave, he noticed how small it was. Instantly sneering at the thought of Ayla finding it, he knew that he would have found somewhere bigger. Somewhere useful. He remembered when she had shown them the cave, he'd try to argue that the women should be banned from it. That it should be the men that had access to it. Now he knew why Brun hadn't agreed. But then he hadn't known that because though he'd found out where it was the same time as the other men, only Creb had entered it, and he must have told Brun how small it was.

The next thing he noticed was the array of baskets and women's things that were in there.

Things that Ayla had probably made.

Probably still wanted.

But wouldn't see again.

Not after he'd destroyed them.

As he reached toward a basket, a feeling of smugness overcame him.

He'd show that disobedient woman.


	5. Chapter 5

Broud lifted the basket up, imagining throwing it in the river, or setting fire to it outside, well if he had fire that is, but then he realised how heavy it was, and he started to wonder what was in it.

So instead of destroying it, he put it down and opened it.

To reveal strips of leather.

He picked one up and looked at it, realising that it had a slight red tinge to it and was quite stiff.

'What is this?' he wondered, thinking maybe that Ayla had been trying to make slings but couldn't get the leather right. 'Just like a woman,' he gesticulated to himself. 'Useless.'

He threw the strip of leather back into the basket and went toward another basket.

He really hoped there would be food in this one.

There wasn't, but there was something just as good. A fur cape, a little small for him, but it would keep him warm. He put it over his shoulders, breathing in the smell of fur and leather and something else he recognised but couldn't quite place.

And then he found what he was looking for. A basket full of apples, they were a bit soft and wrinkled, but he was hungry so he didn't care, just ate the whole of it, skin, flesh, core, seeds, bruises and even the maggot.

'Maybe I won't get rid of the things in here,' he signed. 'I will look through it all, and keep what I want and throw away the rest.'

His eyes alighted on a bladder. He picked it up, noting it was empty, but had a slight smell to it, and the top of it was slightly yellowed.

'I'll wash it out,' he gestured. 'And then fill it with water.'

Except when he took it to the nearby river, he just threw it in, and shook it a bit, didn't let the fast flowing water enter into it. In fact, he nearly lost it and had to step into the water to stop it floating away.

He'd nearly thrown it in the river properly then, so angry was he with Ayla for making his hide wrapped feet wet.

Stamping back to the cave, he unwrapped his feet, grabbed a sleeping fur he'd found in another basket and then laid down to sleep next to the scorch floor of the cave.

All the while wishing he'd brought fire with him.

Or Oga.


	6. Chapter 6

Broud dreams of going back to the clan cave, wearing new furs, and new foot coverings, and holding one of the red tinged pieces of hide fashioned properly into a sling.

Spinning it around his head, and enjoying the looks of admiration on everyone's faces.

Seeing the look of fear on Ayla's face. As she backs away from him, and then lowers herself to the ground, her chin touching it.

In his dream, he puts his foot on her back.

Pushes her face down into the dirt.

'See,' he motions to the clan. 'This woman is nothing. She tried to make slings, but they were stiff and not at all supple. But I spent ages soaking this one, scraping it until it was flexible. I am a great man, and she is just a woman. So today, the day I come back, I demand that this woman is cursed with death, and my curse is lifted, and you all understand that I am your leader and you must all do what I say.'

He's still spinning the red tinged hide sling over his head.

And feeling rather smug.

But then he feels the woman underneath his foot start to move.

He glances down to see she's looking at him.

'How dare she?'

She makes a noise like a whooping hyena, and grimaces the way she does sometimes, her lips pulling back to reveal her teeth.

'Stop being disobedient,' he motions.

She makes the sound even louder, and pushes his foot away.

Stands up, and then points at him.

Points at him and then motions 'what a fool.'

He steps forward to cuff her with his free hand, the other is still spinning the red tinged sling above his head.

But then he sees that others are pointing at him too.

And they're also pulling back their lips to reveal their teeth.

And making the same noise as the woman.

'Look at Broud,' Brac motions. 'Look at what he's got in his hand.'

Broud stares at his empty hand.

'I haven't got anything in my hand,' he thinks but then slowly, he realises that Brac did not mean the hand that is empty. He meant the one with the red tinged sling, that Broud is still spinning over his head.

He glances at it.

All around him, the clan making the noise even louder.

It's starting to hurt his ears.

But then what he sees drives all thoughts of noise away.

It is almost like, in his dream, that he is in a cave alone, but the sides of the cave are see through like water, and he can see everyone outside, but inside, there is no noise.

Because as he looks up at his hand, and the red tinged sling, the red in it starts to thicken, and then bleeds, splattering his face with blood as he continue to spin it above his head.

'He's got a strap,' one of the younger girls motions. 'A hide strap that we use…'

'What do they use it for?'

The blood is thicker now, and pouring down his arm.

'Our women's curse.'

He jerks his head around to look at the young girl, and then glances at Ayla who is stood in front of him. Then slowly he looks at the bleeding sling that he's still spinning over his head.

And then he throws it on the ground, where it continues to bleed.

He looks at his arm in horror, at the blood that's staining his hand, and wrists and his arm right up to his armpit and onto his shoulder.

'That was a woman's strap for the woman's curse?' he motions to himself.

Suddenly everyone is gone, and Broud is in the clan cave alone.

'I've been touching a strap that a woman has used for when she bleeds for her women's curse.'

And then he wakes up, and realises that in his disgust at what he's just realised, he's kicked the basket filled with the red tinged hides, and they have split right over him.

He stands up, knocking them off as if they are bugs, and leaving the fur behind, hurries from the cave.

Coming out to a thin layer of late winter/ early spring snow.


	7. Chapter 7

Broud runs out into the snow, rolls in it, trying to get the stain, the curse that he can feel. His skin itches, and his arm, his hand that in his dream was covered in blood, throbs as if it isn't a part of him.

And all the while, he's wondering if it was a dream, or was it something else? Did the spirit of Ayla attack him, or maybe her clan totem?

He feels dirty, but no how much he rolls in the snow, that feeling doesn't go away.

'The woman's curse,' he motions to himself, his hands flying around him, as he sits up, as he starts to rip at his hair and tug at his wrap. 'That woman has sent the woman's curse to me. She's cursed me with it.' He shudders.

What if it turns him into a woman?

What if he starts to act like a woman?

What if for the rest of his life he has to bow and scrape to the men who are his equals but will treat him as rubbish?

No, worse than rubbish.

As a woman.

He grabs a handful of snow and rubs it on his arm.

Tries to get the stain that he can't see from him.

But it's no use.

It can't be removed.

It will be on his for the rest of his days.

And everyone he sees will know.

Unless.

He stands up.

Looks in the direction of the clan's cave.

'Unless I kill her,' he signs.

He twists his face into a scowl, a grimace, but it is one of satisfaction, as he thinks about hwat he will do to her.

'I will rip her to shreds,' he motions. 'Rip her to shreds and scatter her body parts outside for the hyena's to eat.

He snorts.

'No, I'll pee on her dead body. Right in her strange hair.'

He shakes his head as an idea comes to him.

'I'll pee on her when she's still alive, in her ahir, over her face, in her eyes, in her mouth. Over her ugly body. I will show her that she can't treat me like she has. I'll punish her for sending her curse to me.'

He starts to walk.

Toward the clan cave.

Fear and anger warring within him.

And all the while, he can just picture her face. 'Ayla,' he spits into the snow. 'She is going to be sorry for what she had done.'

He kicks out at a tree, snubs his toe.

'Ayla,' he grunts. 'Ayla.'

And all the while, his anger grows for the woman who has been the bane of his life. The woman who should never have been a part of the clan. The woman who has spoilt everything.

'If she hadn't come, then I wouldn't be cursed,' he motions. 'And I would be the leader, and respected as such. But she ruined everything. If she had never been, then I would be with Oga and her sons right now, maybe planning an early spring hunt or teaching her sons to hunt.'

He stops and stares at the sky.

'She is like the fire that falls from the sky,' he decides. 'That burns everything that is good in its path. Like the light that flashes in the sky and cooks the person it hits. She is bad, I've always known she is bad, but now, I know that I cannot let this evil exist any longer. It has to go. I asked Goov to curse her with death, but that wasn't enough, cursing her is not good enough. She needs to die.

Now.

He sees the familiar trees that line the practise area that he would this summer have been using to teach Oga's sons to hunt.

To use the spear.

'I am near,' he motions to himself, breathing deeply, the fear being finally replaced with just anger. 'How dare she?' he signs. 'How dare she? How dare she?' How dare she?'

Over and over again, his arms flail as he motions to himself.

He imagines strangling her. Clutches his fists, imagining his hands around her throat.

'You are going to be sorry,' he signs, just as he breaks out of the line of trees and can see the dark shadow in the cliff of the clan cave.

'I will kill her, and then I will be released from this curse, but more than that, so will the rest of my people. They'll realise that she is evil when she had no control over them any longer. They'll realise and they'll beg me to return.'

'To lead them.'

He starts to walk up the path that leads to the clan cave.

'They are going to be so surprised,' he thinks.

And thinks about how their mouths will open, and their chins drop when they see him.

See him in the mouth of the cave.

'They'll run to me,' he thinks with satisfaction. 'And Oga will bring her sons, and she'll sit at my feet, and wait for me to respond to her.'

'But I won't respond, not straight away. I'll ignore her, and make her little heart so sad, she won't know what is happening, but she'll understand when she is released by the curse.'

'Once I have killed Ayla.'

He edges around a rock that had fallen in the earthquake, and steps into the mouth of the cave.

And stares at the empty cave with shock.

Where he expected people, there is no one.

He steps forward, noting that the hearths are still filled with rubble, and many of the broken belongings of his clan lay strewn on the floor.

'Why haven't they tidies up?' he motions. 'Why have they left it like this?'

He walks toward his hearth, stares at the sleeping area that he shared with Oga.

The furs are gone, as are many of the baskets and other things.

In fact, he looks around.

Goes toward Brun's hearth.

Empty too. Only rubble and broken things.

'What?' he motions to himself. 'Where is everyone?'

He walks deeper into the cave. Sees more rubble, more broken belongsings.

But everything else. Everything whole and still usable is gone.

'Where is everyone?'

He heads toward the small cave at the back.

With just one thought in his head.

'If my people are nearby, then they'll have left Creb in here. They'll have prepared his body for burial, but he'll still be in here.

Except he's gone.

And the rocks that had covered the body of the medicine woman, Iza, have been pulled up.

And there is a hole.

And no body.

He sits down and stares at the hole.

'I don't understand,' he signs to himself. 'I don't understand what is happening. What has happened.'

But then he does.

'They've gone,' he motions. 'They've gone, and left me here. They've left this cave, and left me, and taken that cursed woman with them.'

He stands up, and rushes outside, down the slope, and into the area where the leadership changeover had been held.

He notes the scorched earth from the fire showing through the snow.

But no other sign that anyone had been there.

'They've gone and left me,' he looks around, hoping, willing, almost begging the spirits and his totem to give him a sign. To show him the footprints that lead of in the direction they had gone.

Whether there are any footprints underneath the snow, he does not know, but what he does know is that for now, he can't follow them.

He can't track them, and catch up to them.

'I am alone,' he signs to himself. 'They have left me, gone to find a new cave, and I have been left behind.'

He imagines his mate's face, and the faces of her sons, and knows that the spirits will never let him see them again.


	8. Chapter 8

'Woman, get me a drink,' Broud motioned, twisting his head around as if he could see someone. 'And hurry.'

He put his hand back on his leg, his knees pulled to almost touch his chin, and clasped it with his other one.

And then started to rock.

'I'm thirsty,' he partly signed. 'Mother, I'm thirsty.'

He started to rock faster and faster. Started grunting as he did.

'Woman,' he growled.

He learned forward and picked up a chipped cup. Brought it to his lips. Coughed and spat out t he dust.

'This water makes me feel even thirstier.'

He picked up a bowl and put a peace of rubble in his mouth.

Tried to chew.

And then howled as he broke a tooth.

'Medicine woman,' he motioned and grunted. 'My mouth hurts. Iza. Where are you?'

He stood up, revealing a brown stain on his legs from where he'd soiled himself.

He stumbled over to Mog-Ur's hearth.

Looked around.

Shivered.

'I'm in pain,' he signed. 'And then like a small child not yet learnt the rules, he started to shake and moan.

'Help me,' he said. 'Please, I'm hungr, thirsty, in pain and so lonely. Oga, Ebra, Iza, Creb, Brun, please help me.'

He fell on his knees. 'I am cursed,' he realised in a rare moment of clarity that quickly passes away.

And then he looks at the mouth of the cave where sunlight is pouring in.

'Ayla?' He says, scrabbling over. 'Have you come to make me well?'

No one answered.

'And keep me company?'

No one answered because no one was there. Bround was alone. And for the short days keft to him before he would die of thirst and hunger, he would always be alone and his bones would not be found for thousands and thousands of year.

Ayla has won.

The End.


End file.
